What people are saying about Gene Robinson and same-sex marriage.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Patheos: "The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, is divorcing his 'husband,' Mark Andrew. ... Gene was the first to not only divorce his wife in favor of his boyfriend, but he and his wife went back to the church where they were married and did their own made up 'Divorce Liturgy' in which they solemnly released one another from their sacred vows. ... Now Bishop Gene is the first to have divorced first a woman then a man. What a brave pioneer!"

Ryan Hunter, Juicy Ecumenism: "I do not gloat over Robinson's announcement, nor I hope will any of us. ... Yet the sad reality is that retired Bishop Robinson's kind of thinking about what marriage is exemplifies the perfect embodiment of the desacralization of society and of the world itself within the progressive worldview. This worldview does not entail merely the creation of a hitherto unrecognized form of marriage, but the desacralization of the very concept or idea itself into something that hardly resembles a marriage."

Lisa Webster, Religion Dispatches: "As Robinson reminded us (Sunday), 'Life is hard.' In his statement, Robinson talks about how his divorce is just more evidence that gay people are no different from anyone else. ... Even when he's trying, the good bishop can't get away from the tradition he represents. That whole 'all will be well' thing began, literally, with St. Julian of Norwich, the brilliant 14th century mystic. ... One of Julian's visions — and yes, she was still canonized — was of Jesus as mother, pregnant with the world. ... Life is hard, and religion is messy."

Rod Dreher, The American Conservative: "Even good Christians who mean well get divorced. That's part of our broken human condition. I hope he can find some kind of peace and order in his life. But Robinson's personal dramas — his coming out as gay, his confession of alcoholism, and now, at a ripe old age of 66, having his second divorce — show him to be someone rather less stable than what you'd look for in a bishop."

Matt Barber, Barb Wire: "As far as God, the Bible and Christianity are concerned, Robinson's 'marriage' twern't never a marriage at all. Accordingly, neither is his 'divorce' a divorce. Nor is it a sin. In fact, according to a clear reading of Scripture, Robinson's so-called divorce is actually a step in the right direction."